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Hello and welcome to the new (online) home of Reverb Culture. It’s been a wild couple months of preparing and praying and preparing more and we’re finally here. It’s a little unnerving actually - an idea that started two years ago as just one guy’s hunch is already turning into a community of people all committed to this one idea: echoing the Catechism in our lives to disastrously beautiful effects.

I say disastrously because no one can attempt to get closer to Jesus without some parts of yourself being burned away. And I say beautiful because of a beautiful reality that I really believe has lacked the attention it deserves if not been completely overlooked in our time.

This reality is celebrated today, Feb. 22, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

It was also celebrated on October 11, 1992, the 30th anniversary of Vatican II, when the Catholic Church gave to its people and the world the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This was the first time since 1566 that the Universal Church came together and created a summary of the ENTIRE Faith. It encapsulates the rich and unique history and heritage of the Catholic Faith, the faith Jesus Christ entrusted to St. Peter when He founded the Church on him.

This Catechism is a definitive statement of all the Catholic Church believes, all that has been echoed down to us since the first Apostles. Its freaking awesome.

The reality is this: as Catholics, we have more than just Sacred Scripture. We are also gifted with the teaching authority of the Apostles, the authority they have to hand down to us the Deposit of Faith through the centuries. What is that Deposit of Faith? It is everything contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the sum total of what Christianity consists of and everything revealed to us by God throughout history, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. And it is this teaching authority we are celebrating today, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

Reverb Culture is an attempt to create a culture of living from the Catechism, from the foundations and depths of the Faith given to us by the Church. We believe that now more than ever we need to turn back to the wisdom of the Church, sitting at Her feet, and learning to apply the fundamental doctrines of the Faith to our everyday lives. Pope Benedict said "The deeper reception of the Catechism in the life of the Church still lies ahead." And we believe this to still be the case. As Christians, we have lost the sense of echoing, of reverberating, the Deposit of Faith at its core.

Pope Benedict, who oversaw the committee tasked with writing the catechism, said “On the one hand, the Catechism appeals to the ‘interior teacher’ present in every man…On the other hand, the Catechism needs the exterior teacher, the catechist, as well as the companionship of the communion of disciples.”

So we are trying to do just that. We are trying to create a space where all three can exist: listening to the Holy Spirit, the interior teacher, breaking open the Catechism through the help of 'teachers' through blog posts, podcasts, and videos created by all sorts of people, and more importantly creating a community of people helping each other live out the Catechism more fully.

Fr. John Hardon said “This Catechism is of historic importance. Depending on how seriously we take it, the future of the Catholic Church will be shaped accordingly.” Thems fighting words.

Our working mission statement:Reverb Culture is a community of young adults creating a culture of wild living by engaging the faith, each other, and the world through the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

We hope to create a spirit of "new ardor" called for by Pope John Paul II in reference to the New Evangelization and seen in the first Apostles. Pope John Paul II addressed the Episcopal Conferences of Latin America on 9th March 1983 in Haiti saying "Look to the future with commitment to a New Evangelization, one that is new in its ardor, new in its methods, and new in its expression".

We hope to, with your help, build a spirit of "wild" (Catholic) living in the sense that it has the passion, fervor, zeal, fire, and enthusiasm for living that the first Apostles had, and which comes with having a heart, mind, and will soaked by faith in Jesus Christ, a faith passed on to us through the Church and handed down to us as the Deposit of Faith. In this way, we hope to re-transform the letter of doctrine into a living voice, to reverberate in our lives and the lives of those around us.

So welcome. Check out the site, pour yourself a libation, introduce yourself, share a cat video - its all fair game here. This whole thing is in its infancy and we have no idea where this journey will take us, but we are glad you are here and walking with us.

"In short, we need to discover the Catechism's pulsating heart. And what is this heart? It is not a dogma or a truth, a doctrine or an ethical principle. It is a Person: Jesus Christ! " - Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa

Edmund Mitchell is Husband to a Texas cowgirl, Father to two boys and one yet to be announced, and youth minister in Toledo, Ohio.